Friday, June 3, was another sea day. The weather was fair, with some sun. It was still pretty cold and windy. The seas were a little rocky and both Bob and I had to wear our sea bands.
This leg of our trip has some bridge players and we met at 10 and had a nice game with a couple from Australia.
Since it was the start of the Queen’s Jubilee weekend, the restaurant had an English Pub lunch with lots of flags and pennants from the UK. The entertainment team led everyone in a sing-a-long. It was a fun atmosphere.
The rest of the day was a lazy one. We read our books. Bob exercised but there was too much movement for me to get on the treadmill.
We finally started off with a clear morning. No rain, but cloudy. A big improvement on the prior days. We were off to Luneburg, a medieval town about 30 miles from Hamburg.
The land in this part of Germany is flat. Quite a change from the mountains and waterfalls of Norway. We drove through mostly farmland. The farms are very large in this area because they are passed on the the oldest son. Therefore they are not broken into smaller parts so all the sons could inherit. The autobahn (highway) going into Hamburg was about 7 lanes wide and crawling along. We were on a busy road but it was moving along nicely.
The town of Luneburg was founded in the 8th century. It came to prominence when salt was discovered close to the surface of the land. The town was never destroyed because in the time of Rome, they never came to this area. During WW II the town was never bombed because the British planned to use it as a headquarters once Germany was defeated.
Our tour started at the Town Hall built in 1230. It has been enlarged and expanded of the years. It has a Baroque facade. We learned about the way that salt was mined. It was a very complex industry. There were 34 families that ran the whole operation. They were quite wealthy. They called the salt “white gold”. Many of their homes are still standing today and are in use as homes or shops. The homes of the wealthy were quite ornate. We learned that over the years as the salt was mined various parts of the town sank because the water levels that washed the salt up to the surface changed.
We saw the town harbor where the salt was loaded on flat bottom boats to be brought to other place to then be shipped around the world. The harbor had a gate in olden times that was locked each night to protect the salt. We saw the warehouses where the salt was stored prior to being shipped and the crane that was used to lower the barrels of salt onto the boats. Inside the crane were 2 big wheels on which 4 men walked to raise and lower the crane bucket. They worked in 4 hour period and had to walk forward and backward to raise and lower the bucket.
There are 3 big churches in town. We went inside St. Nicolai. It was built in the 15th century and was a church dedicated to the sailors. There were boats hanging in the main area.
There were several squares around the town. The main one was near the town hall with many historic building surrounding it. On the day we were there, there was a group of 2nd grade children performing. They sang and played simple instruments. We even saw 2 couples going into the town registry to get married.
It was an interesting town and we learned a lot from our guide, Gertrude, who actually lives in Luneburg.
Today was a washout, literally. We woke up to a drizzle, but by the time we were leaving the ship for our tour it was pouring. Hamburg is in the northern part of Germany and is the second largest city in Germany with a population of approximately 1.7 million. It lies at the intersection of 3 rivers and has many canals as well. The city has 2,500 bridges with New York City being the only city with more bridges.
The city has a vast transportation system – buses, tramcars, underground trains and trains. There are 5 major train stations in the city. The traditional buildings are made of light colored sandstone with copper roofs. Most of the buildings from the 1800s to late 1900s are made of red brick. There was a large amount of building cranes with lots of building going on. These new buildings are modern big city looking.
The old warehouse area built from 1880 to 1920 is now part of a UNESCO area. There is a big area near this being developed as a modern new city. Hamburg is a cultural city with a new opera house, of very striking design, Elbphilharmonie, fondly called Elfie by the locals.
We drove through the city seeing the usual town hall, churches and other famous landmarks. We passed the red-light district where the Beatles got their start playing in bars in the area.
We then boarded a steam powered boat for a ride on Alster Lake. This is a huge lake system, 2 big lakes in the center of town. It was still raining so it was hard to see much. We passed through and by, beautiful parks and homes. This is obviously the upscale part of town. The American embassy is on one of the lakes. The city has been named a European Green Capital for all the beautiful trees and parks.
It finally stopped raining when we got back to the ship, so we were able to eat lunch on the deck, but still had to wear our warm jackets because it was chilly.
We finished the first part of our journey with a day at sea sailing from Stavanger to Hamburg, Germany. The seas were perfectly calm and we even had some sunshine.
We exercised and found some bridge players and spent part of the afternoon playing.
Some final thoughts on Norway. It is an exceedingly beautiful country. The weather was fairly constant – cold, cloudy and misty rain. As the Norwegians say, there is no bad weather just bad clothes. We had bad clothes, not being well prepared for the degree of coldness we encountered. We however were able to layer up and mostly be warm. One pair of gloves was purchased by Bette.
The Norwegian guides, who were mostly not from Norway, spoke so proudly of the country. We did not have many chances to meet people but from what we were told they are happy and content. We never saw any homelessness and the streets were clean with very little graffiti. The Norwegians are very outdoor oriented going out to nature every chance they get. Most have cabins (very bare minimum shelters) outside of their towns and spend their weekends with family and friends being active. Babies nap outside all year round.
It was a very interesting trip so far. More adventures to follow.
Stavanger was settled over 12,000 years ago, because of the natural deep water harbor. It is the 4th largest city in Norway with a population of 140,000. It’s name comes from the words Stav, meaning hills with oak trees and Vanger, meaning harbor. The original industry was timber, then preserving herring in the 1800s and then canning both fish and vegetables. Now it is a tourist destination and is involved in the oil and gas industries.
We did a walking tour of the town. Our first stop was at the Canning Museum. It was interesting to see the old equipment and hear how much labor was manual when this industry was first started. It eventually became mechanized, but the drying of the sardines was still a hands on job. The smokers, the men who dried the fish, were the best paid and were usually well to do. After seeing the canning museum we walked through Gamle Stavanger with all of the old homes. They were in good repair and most had beautiful gardens. We went to a cafe that was in a building built in the 1700s and is still owned by descendants of the original owners. We got to taste 4 different types of sardines.
Our tour continued on the the town’s cathedral. It will be celebrating it’s 900th birthday in 2025 and was totally covered in scaffolding since the entire building is being renovated. It was built by the king of Denmark in payment for a divorce from his then wife so he could marry a beautiful young girl from Stavanger. It seats 800, but at the time it was built the population of Stavanger was only 150.
Norway is among the top 10 fishing nations and exports 140,000,000 seafood dinners a day.
We passed the town library which is used as a center for most of the towns activities. Our guide told us that Norwegians read more books and newspapers per capita than any other country. She also said that Norwegians are prolific knitters, using the wool from the 2 million sheep that call Norway home.
In the 1970s oil was discovered off the coast and it changed Stavanger. It brought in many people from other countries and the city became more cosmopolitan. There are all kinds of restaurants serving many different cuisines. Although they are huge gas and oil producers, Norway exports almost all of it’s gas. This is because they use mostly electricity which is supplied by hydroelectric plants.
Our last stop on tour was to the former watchtower for the town. Men manned it day and night to alert the citizens of fire, since in the day, all the buildings were built of wood.
This was our second visit to Stavanger and again, we did something different and learned a great deal.
Stavanger Cathedral, photo taken from Wikipedia page
Bette and Bob See the World 
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